Summer Splash Supplement 2010
She Watered the Horses
For DSL
For my mother
Every morning in winter she filled five-gallon buckets
with warm, clear, heavy water for the horses.
I didn't tell her she was strong for carrying the buckets
all the way to the barn but she knew.
In the sunlight as she did this one thing she looked happy and young
as she would come to for good in her new marriage years later.
In those days at our farm she stood still,
looking in at the horses as they drank.
Previously published in the Texas Observer, as chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye.
A glass of water before bed
on the balcony of a ship
…I wouldn't have this
without her (ship,
water,
life)
Jamie Buehner was born and raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.